( T03255) in which Laura sits rigidly on an upright chair directly facing the viewer, while Kenneth, positioned at an angle, looks downwards, closely scrutinising a book. He depicted her with his father, Kenneth, in the painting My Parents Hockney’s mother is the subject of numerous images, ranging from line drawings such as this one, to prints, photographs and paintings.
Hockney very rarely takes on portrait commissions, instead preferring to portray relatives and friends or other people he asks to sit for him. Portraiture continues to form an important part of his output. Hockney’s earliest extant portraits of family members date from his time as Bradford School of Art (1953–7), as in for example Portrait of My Father 1955 (reproduced in Livingstone and Heymer, p.44). This highly naturalistic portrait in pen was accomplished in one session without revisions, the product of a high degree of concentration that the artist has identified as part of his drawing practice (Stangos, p.157). It is inscribed ‘Bradford, Aug 2nd, 1972’. Hockney has signed the drawing with his initials. The outward thrust of the chair’s arms and the cast shadows that are densely marked behind the figure’s neck and arm, emphasise a sense of three dimensionality. The chair is positioned squarely within the frame but the figure sits upright against the chair’s right-hand corner, which gives a three-quarter view of the sitter. Wearing a simple dress with short sleeves and a round neck, the figure sits with her hands neatly folded on her lap and her legs crossed. Her face appears lined and her body is frail. This is a drawing showing an elderly female figure, the artist’s mother, sitting in a wing chair.
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